updated 12:11 pm EDT, Fri March 15, 2013

First high-end Tizen release to be 'equipped with the best specifications'

A high-end Samsung smartphone running on the Tizen operating system will be released later this year, an executive has revealed, adding more detail to a previous confirmation. Executive vice president of Mobile Lee Young-Hee claims that the electronics manufacturer will be pushing the single flagship Tizen phone for a release in August or September.

In an interview withBloomberg in Seoul, Lee explained that the phone will be in the "high-end category," and that it "will be the best product equipped with the best specifications." It will be one of three premium smartphones offered from Samsung this year, alongside the Galaxy S 4 revealed yesterday and a new iteration of the Galaxy Note.

While there are not currently any Tizen mobile devices available for sale in the world, the suggestion that Samsung will be making a high-end phone with the software contrasts the expectations of some parties that Samsung would be running Tizen on a low or mid-ranged device. There have also been rumors of a Galaxy S III running Tizen and undergoing Wi-Fi certification.

Tizen itself has seen a number of updates in recent months. One update allowed Tizen to use Bluetooth and NFC hardware, add text-to-speech and background operations to apps, as well as improving HTML5 API support. Billed as an open-source mobile operating system set to compete with Android, it will be able to run Android apps via Open Mobile's ACL technology.